within Asia and Africa rely on it for primary care.
==History==
Folk medicine has existed for as long as human beings have existed. In an effort to cope with an environment that was often dangerous, humans, and their ancestors, began to develop ways of lessening pain and treating physical and mental problems. At first, many of the ways of treating these problems undoubtedly came through trial and error, using various plants and other methods derived from observation of how animals reacted to and treated illnesses and injuries. Over time, individuals within family and tribal groups became more skilled at helping the sick and injured, and some of these became responsible for carrying out healing ceremonies, religious rituals, and other rites designed to ensure the safety and health of their communities.
In the Dark Ages the secrets of plants and herbs and natural healing properties were regarded as the domain of the Druids. In the Middle Ages the folk healers, usually wise women, who had learned the secrets of which herbs, flowers, trees and plants had the power to heal and ward off evil influences passed them down, usually just before death, to the next generation.
Many of the folk remedies applied were effective because of the medicinal qualities and beneficial substances contained within the plants. The folk healers went the extra step of assuring the effectiveness of their cures by picking the herbs at the right time (facing south at sunrise when pulling herbs made them more potent) and with the addition of spoken charms.
==Folk Remedies==
Many of the methods for treating injuries and diseases have been passed down through families for generations, and some of these have been adopted for use by the medical profession. Those treatments not commonly believed to fit within the framework of modern medical practice are commonly identified as folk medicine. Illnesses whose etiologies are not recognized by Western medical practice are known as folk illnesses. Folk illnesses are shaped by the cultural and ethnic groups from which they emerge. They are specific to the cosmology of the cultural and ethnic group to which they belong and they have specific causative, diagnostic, preventative, and healing/curing practices that may vary significantly from how they may be viewed by modern medical practitioners. For example, liver grown is a folk illness found among Pennsylvania Germans. This illness is believed to occur when the liver has become attached to the ribs or some other part of the body cavity. The illness is thought to be more common among children and caused by exposure to a strong wind. It may also be the result of staying outside too long or from being shaken up while traveling. In the American South, the most common symptom in a child is failure to thrive in the child. The illness is diagnosed by feeling the lower chest and seeking to find the flesh pulled inward. Treatment may involve stretching the child's arms and legs behind them to loosen the liver or by passing them through a warm horse collar, bramble bush, or other similar process.